Blog archive for 2015

“Into your hands I commit my spirit…” Some of Jesus’ last words as he hung on the cross, in order to bring God’s cosmic rescue plan to completion, and found here in the words of David to his God. David knows that his spirit is safe only in God’s hands. He declares that God has kept him safe from the enemy and set his feet in a spacious place.

An appropriate psalm for the beginning of Holy Week. Weeping may stay for the night… Except that Jesus’ first followers couldn’t see that joy would come in the morning just two days later. They had given up everything for Jesus. Followed him for maybe three years. Seen the unexplainable. Heard the incredible. Hoped for the unimaginable. And now…?

I like the word ascribe. It reminds me of modern worship songs in the 1980s! Here’s its definition: 1. To regard as arising from a specified cause or source; 2. To regard as belonging to or produced by a specified agent, place, or time.

On a snowy January morning, Jean Baptiste Bugiruwenda, General Secretary of Scripture Union Rwanda, arrived in Scotland. After a brief sightseeing tour of Edinburgh, he headed out to the countryside and built his first ever snowman.

Sometimes it seems as if God is silent. We cry out to him for rescue, mercy, vindication… and the heavens seem impenetrable. It seems as if David is finding this in today’s psalm and I’m sure we can think of times in our own lives when we’ve wondered if God has heard us at all; whether his attention has wandered; whether he’s aware of the desperation we find ourselves in.

Last month Tima Stupak and Andrej Likhodyeyev from the SU movement in Ukraine, Open Bible, spent some time in Scotland. During their visit, they visited a couple of schools with our regional worker, Martin Boyd.

Holiday clubs are a great way of engaging children and young people in your community, building significant relationships and seeing children respond to the gospel. Over 2014, we had the privilege of partnering with over 30 churches across Scotland; in 2015, we are delighted that this will increase.

One thing I seek… God has been speaking to me a lot about having eyes only for him. The picture I have is of when you dance with someone. If you keep your eyes on theirs and let them take the lead (if you are the woman!), it works out much better than if you try and pushing your partner round the dance floor without any spoken or unspoken communication.

The March 2015 edition of @SU Magazine is now available to read online. If you would like to receive these links straight to your inbox whenever a new issue of @SU comes out (3 per year), you can sign up to receive @SU by email.

There are some pretty hefty claims in this psalm. I couldn’t write these words with all integrity, that’s for sure! And yet… because of Jesus’ blood, I can. Because I am clothed in white, covered by his blood. Forgiven, redeemed, purchased, restored. I am no longer guilty in his sight – even when I get it wrong. God looks on Jesus and pardons me. So where am I living? In the jail of shame or the freedom of forgiveness?

From the content, it would seem safe to assume that David is not in a happy place at the writing of this psalm. He is lonely and afflicted; troubled to his core. But that’s not where he starts. His starting point is, ‘In you, LORD my God, I put my trust.’ In other psalms we see him coming to this place after he has poured out his pain and frustration, but here the trust comes first.

This week our gap year team of Rachael Duff and Anna Strong are in Kiev visiting the SU Open Bible team in Ukraine. The team is being led by Colin Carmichael, our Regional Worker for the North Highlands, Western Isles and Orkney.